Due
by Nanya
Summary: A Due-centric story. This is the story about life, death, and mice that don't make very good conversationalists. Wait, what?
1. Chapter 1

So, after seeing a small fancomic where Due managed to come back to life, I was inspired to write this story up.

Yeah, call me crazy, I'm actually writing a story about the only one of the Numbers that died.

Due

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Sighing as she shifted through the garbage, she wondered, just wondered, why the hell she had to be stuck in this form. "Reincarnation mode sucks." She sighed and kicked the garbage can over. "From top assassin to a child, how pathetic." Gripping at the sheet around her body, she shivered as a cold wind blew in.

Her hair was dirty, her body was filthy, she couldn't recall the last time she had slept in a good bed, or had a hot meal. Not to mention the clothes she stole from that laundry line were in tatters now. "Everyone thinks I'm dead, I bet." She wondered just why it took so long for her Reincarnation Mode to trigger off, before shrugging it off. Sudden death syndrome from a spear to the gut was hard to shrug off after all.

She supposed it wouldn't be hard to find a homeless shelter or something. Maybe she could grab some kid, knock them out and turn into them so she could at least have one night in a warm bed and warm food.

"But it's always so haaaaard!" She whined and pouted. Another thing about Reincarnation Mode she had found out, very quickly, was that she was basically a child in mind and attitude.

Even her transformation abilities suffered for it. She could only turn into a child version of someone, and only for as long as she could keep her attention up. Which was pretty hard when she suffered from Attention Deficit.. "Oooh! A puppy!" Grinning, she ran over to the dog and held her hand out. The dog growled at her before suddenly sticking its tongue out and licking her hand. "Hee hee hee." There was no collar around the dog's neck, so either it had run away after slipping out of its collar, or it was a stray. "You have no home either, huh?" She blinked as the dog turned its head and ran off at a fast clip. "Hey! Don't leave me!" She ran after the dog, stumbling the whole way, until she lost sight of it. Sighing, she turned and walked back into the alley she had been staying in.

She didn't trust anyone out there. If anyone knew who she was, well, she was certain that she wouldn't like the consequences if someone did find her that recognized her. Another cold wind blew and she shivered. Winter time sucked to not have a home, warm clothes and a hot bath.

As she closed her eyes and curled up upon herself, she idly wondered what her sisters were doing.

(-)

"Achoo!"

"You okay, Sein?" Dieci asked the slimmer girl, who nodded.

"Oh yeah, just fine, must have smelled something unpleasant." They both shared a chuckle as Sein caught the time. "Ick! If I'm not back soon, Schach will have my ass."

Dieci gave her a weird grin. "I thought she had your ass all the time anyway."

"Yeah, but it's not as pleasant when she's upset at me." Sein smirked back as Dieci blushed softly. "Come on, let's cut through here."

Rolling her eyes, Dieci followed after her green-haired sister as they ran through a back ally. "Ack!" She nearly stumbled over as she tripped over something. "What the heck?" She turned around and blinked as she saw something with yellow hair, it was dirty, shivering slightly. "Hey! Sein, wait up!"

"Huh?" Sein blinked and turned around. "What?"

"I found a kid..." Dieci gently picked the kid up and blinked. "She's pretty light too..."

Sein winced at that. "Might be a run-away... Come on, let's at least get this one to the church." At least a hot meal, a change of clothes and a bed would help. "At least Sister Schach won't have a reason to come after me."

Though, for some odd reason, both Dieci and Sein felt like they knew the girl.

(-)

For some reason, the cold was gone. "Warm..." She whispered softly and curled up more. Surely this was a dream and she was about to get hypothermia or something.

Something was wrong though, she couldn't feel the cold air anymore... And it felt like she was wrapped up in something... Cracking an eye open she looked around and wondered just why she was in someone's bed. She gulped, remembering the last time she was in this situation. That hadn't been fun. Maybe she could slip out before anyone...

"Are you sure?" She heard someone's voice, strange, it sounded familiar. Still, no time to ponder. There wasn't a whole lot of places she could hide. Looking around, she just needed some place small enough...

"ah ha!" She grinned and jumped above the door, pressing her body to the ceiling and wall and hoped that they didn't look up.

"No doubt about it." Another female said as the door opened. She could see a woman with short pink hair talking to a green-blue haired woman, both were dressed in church attire. "She has Jail Scagiletti's DNA in her, though slightly modified."

"Eh?" The green-blue haired one, why did she look so familiar to her? Spoke up. "But that's not possible. Uno, Tre and Quattro are in prison, only one other person had the doctor's DNA, and that was Due, but she's dead."

She narrowed her eyes at hearing that. Yeah, everyone thought she was dead, this sucked.

"I know but..." The taller woman trailed off as she got a look at the bed. "She's gone!"

"What?" The other girl sounded surprised.

"Sein, go check around the hallways, I'll check outside!"

"Got'cha Sister Schach!"

Watching as the pink haired one seemed to teleport through the window and the other one left, she frowned. 'Sein? She lives here now?' Another problem with Reincarnation Mode, she supposed, her memories were scrambled to hell and back. Dropping down, she got a look at herself and blinked, at least they were kind enough to change her clothes into something that wasn't full of holes and cold.

Still, she didn't know what they would do to her if they found her, and she didn't want to find out. Running down the hallway, she just hoped that she didn't get caught by anyone. She came to a screeching halt as she saw Sein's back and gulped, she just knew that Sein was going to turn around and...

"Huh?" Sein spun around and blinked at the young girl that stood in front of her. "Shouldn't you be in class?"

"I'm sorry." The blue-haired, red-eyed girl bowed, though Sein thought she sounded an awful lot like Fate Tesstarossa at that moment, and blushed as she looked around nervously. "I'm new and I got lost."

Sein thought about it, she didn't think there were any new additions lately, but then again, she didn't always pay attention when Carim or Schach told her things. Oh well. "Come on, let's get you to a class until we can figure out what to do with you."

"Okay." The girl followed her as the two walked towards classes.

"Now, here's your class and..." Sein blinked a few times. "Where did she go?" She pouted. If she lost a student, Schach really WOULD have her ass.

From her position behind a pillar, she watched Sein disappear looking for her and cursed the fact that she had seen a penny on the floor, which caused her to drop her transformation. If she could just find her way to the front door, she could just slip away unnoticed.

It wasn't as if she didn't trust Sein. Sein would never harm her.

She didn't trust the OTHER people that Sein was with not to harm her.

After all that Jail did, she wasn't sure that people wouldn't try to use her as a way to get back at him.

"Vivio?" A female voice had her stiffen and slowly turn around. In front of her was a girl with sandy brown hair done up in two pigtails and blue eyes. "Oh, sorry, you just kind of looked like her from the back. Then again, she's wearing different clothes today. You wanna meet her? She's a really nice person."

"Um..." She didn't get much of a chance to say anything when her arm was grabbed and she was pulled into a nearby class.

"Vivio!" The girl waved, getting a smile from a blond haired girl with mis-matched eyes.

"Corona!" The girl grinned happily at her friend. "Hey, who's that?"

"I'm not sure, actually." Corona chuckled and turned to her. "What's your... Are you okay? You look ill."

The Saint Kaiser? Of all the things... She had to run into the Saint Kaiser. "Um, yes, not feeling well... I'll just... Find my way to the infirmiry..." She chuckled nervously and slipped back out of the room, leaving everyone to blink in confusion.

"Weird..." Rio said, wondering why that girl had gone deathly pale when she saw Vivio.

(-)

Panting, she ran down the hallway. She couldn't be caught. After all, after everything she had done before she had died, she just couldn't imagine that anyone would accept her. Not without doing something... She slid and nearly crashed into a wall as she saw two people's shadows moving towards her. Spinning around, she turned a corner and ran down the hall. She hated this tiny body. If she could just find a door outside...

She turned a corner and grinned, there, she could see the door, she was... "OOOMPH!" She crashed into something and found herself on the ground, rubbing her butt. "Oww! That's not fair! I can't do anything! Owwies!"

"I think you hurt her, Cinque." A kind voice was heard, chuckling softly.

"I didn't mean to, Carim..." Cinque knelt down in front of her. "Hey, are you okay?"

Cinque, she remembered Cinque, that girl got hurt years ago, her right eye had been lost. "Uh..."

"Cinque, Knight Carim, I'm sorry, I... Hey!" Sein was heard as she came across the scene. "It's that girl that disappeared from her room!"

She whimpered and looked at Sein and Cinque. She just needed to...

"Who's this?" A soft, almost masculine voice spoke up and she turned to look at a boy with short spiky brown hair in a butler outfit and a girl with a long brown hair wearing a typical nun outfit, she would know, she impersonated a nun for long enough.

Seeing everyone look at her, she did all that she could considering the situation.

"WAAAAAHHHH! I'M SORRY!" She threw her head back and wailed, hoping that they wouldn't do anything drastic to her.

The small group looked at each other in confusion before looking back at the crying blond girl.

"I looked everywhere but I couldn't..." Schach blinked as she came across the scene. "I see that she's been found."

(-)

Looking at the little blond girl as she sat in the office sniffling, Carim shook her head in amusement. "Now... Can you start by telling all of us your name?"

The girl seemed to stiffen and looked around nervously. "Um... Uh..."

"None of us are going to hurt you." Cinque smiled at her, trying to reassure her. Oh how she wanted to tell Cinque who she was, but there was the whole... Killing that priest in her past life, the brains and that general.

...

Well, no one cared about that last person anyway.

(-)

Auris sneezed and felt like she needed to find someone to torment.

(-)

Schach shook her head. "We already know that you're a clone of Jail Scagiletti and..."

"Due?" Cinque gasped and grasped the girl by her shoulders to look at her closer. "Is that you?"

She gave a slight nod and was surprised when Cinque hugged her tightly.

"Oh gods! Due!" Cinque had tears falling out of her good eye. "I missed you so much!"

Before Due could say anything, another pair of arms wrapped around her as Sein joined in on the hug.

Carim looked at Schach, Otto and Deed, all of whom shrugged helplessly. "Due was killed by Zest a few years ago, Cinque... Are you sure that's Due?"

The two pulled away from the tiny blond girl, who looked at Carim and sighed. "I'm Due... Yeah, Zest killed me a few years ago and... Oooh!" Due jumped from where she was and grabbed a pen from the top of the desk. "My pen!"

"...She has ADD?" Cinque asked, dumbfounded. Her older sister, the cold-hearted assassin, had trouble keeping her attention on something more than five seconds?

Carim coughed politely. "Due... If you died, how are you here now?"

"Reincarnation Mode." Due squeezed the pen tightly and rocked slightly. "My body had to canibilize itself and the energy I had in me brought me back to life a couple years ago..."

"Wait... A couple years ago..." Sein blinked. "Then where have you been..?"

"The winters were cold..." Due shivered slightly. "Did you know that a scarf keeps you really warm?" She grinned brightly and put the pen back on the desk. "Hey, Cinque, can I have your eye patch?"

Cinque took off her eye patch and gestured for Due to come over to her. "Yes, scarves are warm and..."

"Hey!" A female voice spoke up and Due suddenly stiffened and went stark white as Vivio poked her head in. "I was wondering if you saw that new... Oh hey! There she is!" Vivio grinned happily. "I'm glad that you're not sick."

Due whimpered. "No... No..." She shook her head and turned, but Cinque grabbed her wrist. "No! Lemme go! Lemme go! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I was under orders! I'm sorry!"

"Due!" Cinque looked at her worriedly as her sister tried to get away from her. "Calm down!" She pulled Due into a hug and for the first time noticed how skinny she was. "Shhh... Calm down."

"Huh? What's going on?"

"Waaaahhh! I tricked the priest into stealing the fabric with Olivie's blood on it and gave it to the doctor to use for cloning!" Due cried out, tears leaking out of her eyes.

Otto looked at Deed, who shrugged. Both of them had heard this from Jail before, well, not who did it, but they knew that the shroud was stolen, so, it was kind of interesting.

"I'll be good! Just let me go! I'll go live behind the pizza place during the winter!" She calmed down and trembled, whimpering. "Maybe the stuff won't be too covered in gunk this winter..."

Schach sighed softly. "Well, I didn't want to bring this up, but she's got several signs of someone who's lived on the streets for awhile... Malnutrition... Mental disorders... And several diseases that we can take care of pretty quickly..."

Carim sighed softly and nodded at Schach. "Thank you. As for you, Ms. Due... I don't think that your sisters are going to let me kick you out into the street, at least not as you are."

Due whimpered, tears falling down her face. "You're going to throw me in prison for killing those people, aren't you? WAHHH! I'm only six years old right now! I don't wanna spend the rest of my life in prison!"

"I think dying kind of absolves you of your previous crimes, Due..." Sein chuckled softly, before her chuckles died off as Due didn't say anything. "...You've been back alive for two years... Why didn't you search us out?"

"Nnnngh!" Due growled and grabbed her head. "Couldn't remember! All my memories were screwed up and my head hurt! Did you know that mice aren't very tasty?"

"You... Ate mice?" Cinque blanched slightly as Due nodded.

"Uh huh... Last winter, they all crowded in that abandoned condemned apartment building. Kinda chilly, but at least they were food..."

"Which would explain the diseases we found..." Schach shook her head. The more she heard from this kid, the less she wanted to let the girl out of her sight.

"Then they blew up the building in the spring." Due pouted heavily. "My scarf went with it! That nice man gave me that scarf!"

"Nice man?" Cinque looked confused as Due turned to her and nodded.

"Uh huh... He got mad cuz I stole his hot food, but then he saw how I looked, gave me his scarf and some money for food or clothes and left. But he was pretty nice, even if his face was all scarred up and hairy. Hey, did you know that puppies are excellent body warmers?"

Due's stomach growled and the cyborg in question winced. "Sorry... I'll just..."

"Sit down while Otto and I go and get some food, sister." Deed smiled at her. "You aren't going to go anywhere until you have a good meal, understand?"

Due blinked at her as Otto smiled and slipped out of the room. "Huh?"

"Just sit and wait for a few moments." Deed smiled as she left the room.

"Uh..."

Cinque sighed softly. "You aren't going back to the streets, Due. We aren't going to let you."

"Besides..." Carim looked at her seriously. "I can't let you go until I've made sure that you're at least medically healthy, so, you're stuck here until the doctors clear you."

Due looked down and trembled softly. "Thank you."

Vivio scratched her head. "So... Are you going to school with me now?"

"Crap!" Sein paled heavily. "I forgot! There was this blue-haired girl and..." She trailed off as Due turned into the girl that she saw before. "...I should have guessed..." Sein hung her head down. "I forgot you could shape-shift."

Due, in her blue-haired form, giggled softly. "Yeah, my transformation ability is still top-notch but... OOOH! A birdie!" She turned back to normal as a bird flew by the window. "Did you know that normal birds don't taste that good? Not much meat, all bones."

"...I guess she can't keep her transformation up if she gets distracted..." Carim shook her head.

Cinque just smiled as she walked up to Due and hugged the young girl. "Glad to have you back, Due."

The small girl hugged her back. "Thank you, Cinque."

* * *

You know, I'm never going to be able to look at that cyborg the same way again.


	2. Chapter 2

People convinced me to continue this, so, I am. Future chapters are going to be shorter than the first one was.

I hope you all enjoy this story.

* * *

A few days later...

Cinque looked into the room. "Hey..."

"Cinque!" Due cheered and ran for her, hugging her tightly. "Mmmm! You bring me toys? Or maybe a knife set?" Her eyes gleamed. "I found these birds outside, I wanna know what they taste like, no one brings me birds to eat!"

Cinque patted her on the head. She had gotten used to Due's... Odd mental patterns as of late. "No toys, no knives, sorry."

"Drat." She kicked the ground. "I'm bored, they won't let me wander around without someone around. I'm not going to kill anyone, I can barely open the doors around here! I'm not the same Due I was before. I was so meeeeeaaannnn!" She started to whine before she grabbed Cinque's coat. "I'm sorry I made Quattro into such a meanie!"

"It's... Okay, Due. I could have done more myself." Cinque patted her on the head. "I think they want someone with you so that you can open the doors." From what Sein had told her, Due could barely lift a basketball right now.

"But I don't like being stuck in the hospital wing of the Church! It's boring!"

Cinque chuckled softly, Due was nice when she was childish. "I suppose it is boring, huh?" She looked at the table near Due's bed and mentally sighed as she saw the empty pill cups. Most of that was antibiotics to deal with the physical diseases Due had, though Cinque wondered if they were giving her any drugs to help with her ADD or other mental diseases she most likely had.

"Can we go play?" Due's eyes sparkled. "Otto, Deed and Sein keep getting pulled away and Ixy's no fun to talk to, she just sleeps all day. Is Tre still a grumpy face? When can I tell everyone I'm alive again? Can I ride a pony?"

"The last time I saw her, Tre was a bit of a grumpy face, and we can't let you go tell the Doctor that you're still alive, Due, not until you're better, okay?" The girl pouted and nodded at him. "As for the pony, well, I can't get one of those in here."

"Aww!" She pouted and whimpered. "But I want a pony! I wanna ride it until my butt hurts!"

"You're pretty loud for someone who was an assassin." A male voice spoke up gruffly as a blue and white wolf walked into the room, causing Due's eyes to sparkle.

"PUPPY!" She squealed and glomped him. "Oh! Big puppy! Can I keep him?"

Cinque giggled softly. "Sorry, but Zafira doesn't belong to me or you."

"Awww..." Due sniffled and teared up and Zafira shook his head and lowered his body down. "Huh?"

"You wanted to ride something, right?" He asked her and her eyes lit up as she jumped on his back. "You can get on too, Cinque."

The silver haired cyborg shook her head and blushed. "No, I couldn't..."

"Please, Cinque?" Due looked at her with big eyes that seemed to water up. "I wanna ride with my sister!"

"..." Cinque had a hard time resisting those eyes and she looked at Zafira, who nodded.

Twenty seconds later, Zafira was walking down the hallway of the Saint Church with Cinque and Due on his back, both of them chatting happily with each other.

He nodded to Carim as he walked downstairs so that Due could go near some of the other patients that were in the hospital. They weren't letting Due go outside, since it had started snowing lately and they weren't sure if she'd go off and find some squirrels to kill to see what they tasted like.

Sighing softly, Carim turned to Fate, who had brought Cinque and Zafira in on Hayate's request. "What are your thoughts?"

"For someone who's cloned from Jail and taught Quattro, she's remarkably... Innocent." Oh sure, Fate had heard what Due had said, granted that had been second-hand information, but she had heard it still. "Why was she in that sheet?"

"She said that it was better than running around naked on the streets." Carim said softly and Fate looked at her in shock. "Apparently, Reincarnation Mode just fixes the body, not the clothes or weapons."

"Still... It's amazing that she can be coherent at all..."

"I'm still worried about her though." Carim shook her head. "She eats like I expected her to eat, worried that someone will take it, or if she doesn't hurry up, the food will go bad."

"She does know..." Fate trailed off as Carim nodded. "What about her health?"

"It's amazing that she's not down at this moment. By all accounts, her body should have given out so it could work and heal her."

Fate winced, she didn't doubt it. Eating birds, mice, garbage, all those couldn't have been healthy for her, especially since she was only physically six years old.

Carim smiled softly. "Thankfully, she's responding well to treatments. Most kids would probably take a year at least, I think she'll be fully healed in under two months."

Fate nodded, she couldn't imagine how hard it had to have been for the girl out there. "Can't believe that I'm feeling sorry for her..."

"I know." Carim nodded at her. "Still, we've been doing all we can to off-set the malnutrition she suffered." Heck, that first night they had to put Due up on an IV drip overnight because they were worried she wouldn't make it through the night. "Maybe she'll grow up into a productive member of society?"

Fate smiled softly. "It's not how you're born after all, it's the people around you that helps you."

(-)

"Hey!" Sein grinned as she saw Zafira walking down the stairs with Cinque and Due. "Sorry I haven't been around, Due, but Sister Schach won't let me slough off in my duties at all."

Due pouted at her. "My room's boring! I don't like being there!" Her eyes watered up. "Can you get me a kitty? Please? Then I can talk to someone all the time. Mice aren't good listeners, they always try to run away and when you catch them all they do is scream until you bite their heads off to make them shut up, but then they don't wanna talk anymore and it's no fun."

Sein sweat-dropped, sure, she was even more used to hearing the odd things that came out of Due's mouth than Cinque was, but it was still... Odd, hearing them come out of a six-year-old's mouth. "I don't think that I'm allowed to get you a kitty."

"Awww!" She crossed her arms and pouted. "That's no fun! Alley cats aren't nice, they scratch your arms up and leave you all scarred, see?" She pulled her sleeves back and revealed lots of white marks on her arms. "Then again, some dogs aren't nice, there was that one dog that bit me before running off, that was no fun at all."

She blinked as she felt Cinque pull her into a hug. "Cinque? What?"

"I'm sorry, Due..." Cinque sniffled softly behind her. "If I had known you could reincarnate, I would have looked for you." Though, now she knew why Jail had called her a masterpiece, if she had this kind of skill.

"I didn't even know I had this mode!" Due pouted more. "The doctor never told me that I could do this!"

"Kind of makes sense, if you think about it..." Sein scratched her head. "It would be pretty hard to make more combat cyborgs, since even cloning them is a tricky business, so, the doctor probably put it into Due, since she was the most likely one to die."

"Don't you think he would have said something though?" Cinque asked, getting a shrug from Sein.

"Don't ask me. Quattro and Uno were the only two that knew what was going through his head at any time."

Cinque was about to say something when she felt Due lean back, her eyes closed as she let out a soft snore. "Huh?"

"I was wondering if the drowsiness would catch up with her." Sein chuckled softly. "Those were some powerful antibiotics."

Zafira shook his head and turned around. "I'll stay in her bedroom so that she's not alone."

Cinque smiled at that as he carried them back to Due's room. "Thank you, Zafira."


	3. Chapter 3

Man, I think Due's cuteness is starting to get to me. I'm actually really liking her like this.

* * *

A couple months later...

Due looked at Schach as the older woman slipped a bracelet on her wrist. "What's this for?" she asked curiously as Schach put some gloves on Due's hands.

"Well, you're finally healthy enough to go play outside." Schach smiled softly as Due let out a yell of happiness. "But outside is a bit too big, if something happens, or it suddenly storms, the bracelet will let us find you fast."

"Also you wanna make sure that I won't run off, huh?" Due gave her a flat look as Schach finished fixing up her coat.

Schach stared at Due, who looked back at her seriously. "...You're rather sharp when you aren't being silly."

"I *was* an assassin who lived at this church for awhile, remember?" Due deadpanned at Schach. "It's hard to be serious when I have the attention span of a hummingbird on a sugar high." She groaned and rubbed her head. "My head feels like someone put my brain in a blender and hit puree... Maybe I should try that sometime?"

"Huh?" Schach looked at Due, who was thinking seriously.

"Yeah! Make some fake brains and put in the blender, see what happens!" Due giggled as she mentioned something about red food coloring to make it more realistic and Schach let out a sigh, at least that wasn't too bad. There were plenty of students in the school who liked doing stuff like that. Making things get messy was fun apparently.

"Sein! Otto! Deed!" Due grinned and slipped away from Schach, waving at them. "You three going to work again today?"

Deed shook her head and smiled. "Nope. We were putting in extra work these last few days so we could all go and play with you today."

"Really?" Due's eyes sparkled in happiness as Otto nodded at her.

"Yep." Deed's twin sister knelt down and smiled softly. "We all wanted to be there when you finally got to go back outside."

"Yay!" Due threw her hands up in the air and hugged Otto.

After Due let go, Otto chuckled as she, Sein and Deed walked with their sister to the front door. Even though it had been two months, it was still weird seeing Due as a child, not that Otto nor Deed had known her in her real form, but the fact that she was a child cyborg was the weirdest part.

Well, that and the fact that there was a cyborg smaller than Cinque.

"Cinque! Zaffy!" Due grinned as she saw the two by the front door. "Hi!"

Cinque smiled at her, before kneeling down. "Due, close your eyes for a moment, okay?"

Blinking, Due did just that before she felt something warm and fuzzy wrap around her neck. "Cinque?"

"Okay, open your eyes now." She did and saw Cinque smiling at her but holding onto...

"...My scarf?" She stared at it dumbly as she gripped it tightly. "How? It went boom!" She threw her hands up. "Everything went boom, my hearing stopped for awhile, was so loud, did you know explosions hurt when you're only four feet from them? All movies lie! They're loud, they throw you down and then you get all cut up from all the stuff thrown around by them! It's not fair! They shouldn't be that loud and..."

"Due!" Cinque grabbed her shoulders to keep from going into another tirade and freaking everyone out again. "Calm down... Zafira came across a piece of your scarf and we had Hayate-san knit you a new one."

"You did?" Due asked, her eyes misting up as Cinque nodded. "Thank you." She hugged Cinque, before letting go and glomping Zafira. "You're my favorite puppy!"

Zafira rolled his eyes. "We should go outside. Nove and Wendi might start doing something crazy if we take too long."

"Huh?" Due blinked. "Nove and Wendi?" She hadn't seen much of her sisters, other than Cinque, who visited every other day, Sein, Otto and Deed, the latter three had been mostly absent for the past few days, since she had gotten at the Saint Church. "...Who are they again?"

"You never met them." Cinque smiled softly. "Don't worry about it, you'll like them, I promise."

Due looked at her, before nodding and grinning. "kay!"

(-)

"I'm glad she can finally go outside." Carim smiled as she and Hayate looked out the window while drinking some hot cocoa. They normally drank tea, but considering how chilly it was, they didn't think it was appropriate for some reason.

"Been a problem?" Hayate was slightly concerned as Carim nodded slightly.

"She hates being alone and gets bored easily." Carim wasn't sure just why Due hated being alone like she did. "She hates waking up alone even." She chuckled softly as Hayate looked at her confused. "One morning, she woke up alone because Sein overslept and when we came to get her for breakfast, she was in tears before grabbing Sein for dear life, saying she thought that she was abandoned."

Hayate winced, she could see why. "Abandonment issues?"

"Considering that she died on a mission and alone, it's understandable why she wouldn't want to be alone."

"She didn't search any of her family out though, did she say why?"

Carim shook her head. "No." She had some suspicions, considering that Due didn't seem to trust anyone but Sein, Otto, Deed or Cinque. Even though she liked Zafira, she kept trying to get away from him when one of her sisters weren't around.

"I see..." Hayate shook her head. "What else can you say about her?"

"Despite her personality and her difficulty sitting still and focusing on anything, she's incredibly intelligent. We gave her some placement tests for school, but she aced each one, except for the ones for the final senior year for civilians." Carim thought about it for a moment. "When we could get her to sit still and calm down at least."

"So, she has all her previous intelligence then?"

Carim nodded and leaned back. "The best way I can explain her now is that she has her memories, intelligence and experiences all mashed together with the personality, innocence and insanity of a child who's been sick, suffering from more than just a couple mental diseases combined with the attention span of a hyperactive kid on a sugar rush makes for a very unusual person. To be honest, I'm sure that she knows she shouldn't be behaving the way she does, but..."

"But?" Hayate blinked as Carim shook her head.

"She complains about splitting headaches when she stays calm for too long."

"...So it's a coping mechanism?"

"Probably the only one she has." Carim sighed. "When my brother gets back in a couple weeks, I'll see if he can do something to help her cope with it."

Hayate smiled, she missed Verossa, the guy was rather fun to talk to. "It'll be nice to see him again."

Carim nodded and looked outside, giggling softly as Due tried to throw snow at Zafira, who was sitting down, before he suddenly shot up and took off, causing her to fall on the bank in surprise. Hayate joined in her laughter as Wendi pelted her with snow. "That looks fun." Hayate giggled more as Due got onto Zafira's back and the two took off after Wendi and Nove, who were dodging the two as Zafira's running kicked up a lot of snow.

Even so, Carim watched and worried slightly. They had only just began to give Due vaccinations, mostly because they didn't want to over-tax her body while she had been taking antibiotics.

"Carim?" Hayate blinked at her. "What's wrong?"

The blond nodded her head at Due, who was laughing as she made a snow angel. "You know how she often times goes off on tangents and seems to be in a world of her own, right?"

"Yeah..?" Hayate blinked as Carim sighed. "What about it?"

"In her more... Lucid moments she's asked about Jail and her other sisters and wonders what happened to them."

"Have you told her?"

Carim shook her head. "No... I... I didn't think it was a good idea to tell her, not yet."

"You'll have to tell her, sooner or later..." Hayate sighed and Carim nodded.

"I know." The two looked back outside and smiled softly as Due, Nove and Otto were making a snowman while Deed, Cinque and Wendi built some sort of snow fort.

"I hope you're taking pictures of this." Hayate giggled as Carim winked at her.

"Schach's got the camera."

After all, this was too cute to not record.


	4. Chapter 4

Next couple of chapters won't be as funny. I'm sorry about that. But, hey, it'll still be good, I promise.

* * *

About two weeks later...

Due looked up at Cinque as the latter smiled at her softly. "What are we doing here?" There were armed guards and people in prison clothes being led around and she gripped Cinque tightly. "I don't wanna go to prison! No! Don't make me go!" She started crying against Cinque's body. "Please! I don't know what I did, but please! I'm sorry! Don't make me go!"

"Due! Due!" Cinque knelt down to look at her sniffling sister. "It's okay. We're just here to visit someone, that's all."

"We are?" Her voice was timid and meek as Cinque nodded. "Kay!" She started to smile brightly even as Cinque pulled out a tissue and wiped Due's face down with it.

Even though she was smiling at Due as they walked, hand in hand, into the building, Cinque couldn't help but feel sad for her, since she reacted so... Violently to the thought of even going into a prison.

She wanted to say something, anything, to promise Due that she wouldn't be going to prison, but for some reason the words wouldn't form, nor could she get any sound out of her throat.

(-)

"Well, well..." Quattro narrowed her eyes at the screen. "If it isn't the leader of that batch of traitors..." She sighed as she looked at the other screens in front of her, since this was a teleconference call, more than one person was on the screen at one time.

"Quattro!" Uno yelled at her from her own screen. "At least say hello before you start criticizing Cinque." Turning to the small cyborg, Uno smiled. "I'm sorry, it's been too long, Cinque."

"Tsk... What brings you here anyway?" Tre asked as she leaned against the wall in her cell. "I'm not ungrateful for the call, it's just that I didn't expect anyone to call today."

"Yes, it... Was a surprise." Jail chuckled from his view screen. "It is rather nice to see you again, Cinque. Tell me, have your sisters adjusted to normal life yet?"

"For the most part, yes." Cinque nodded at him. "Actually, I'm here because I have someone to show to you." Mentally, she smiled brightly as the four looked at her in curiosity. "Come here." She gestured to someone that they couldn't see. "Say hello." She smiled as a little blond girl walked up to her.

"WAI!" The girl jumped up and down. "Doctor, Un-nee, Tre, Quattro! You're all alive!"

"Uh... Huh?" Tre looked at the blond, wondering what the hell was going on here. "Cinque, who is that?"

"You're still a frowny face, Tre." The child pouted at her. "And, Un-nee, you're still bland... And Quattro... Didn't I teach you better than that? Seriously, if you're going to try and use two people to kill each other, make sure that you can't be found first!"

"D...Due?" Quattro had a rare expression of complete and utter astonishment on her face. "What the hell?"

"That's riiiiiight!" Due grinned, her eyes closed as she waved her hands up and down. "I came back from the dead to torment all of you with visions of dead squirrels that go peep, mice that don't make for good conversations and birds that are extra crunchy when you eat them!"

"...I agree with Quattro, what the hell?" Tre stared at Due, or rather, the one who claimed she was Due, since Due never acted like this the last time Tre had seen her.

"She's... Been like this for the past few months, actually..." Cinque shook her head in amusement. "She has a hard time focusing..."

"Winters are cold, you know there's more snow this year than last year? I would know, I ended up sleeping under two feet of it, my feet felt like they'd freeze off." Due stomped the ground, grumbling. "That wasn't very nice, winter! Can't you put less snow out?"

"And she tends to go off into tangents..." Cinque sweat-dropped heavily.

Jail frowned thoughtfully. "Due..."

"Huh?" She blinked at him innocently as she smiled.

"How are you still alive?"

"Reincarnation Mode!" She grinned as his face took on a look of sudden clarity. "I'm back and smaller than ever! And look!" She suddenly transformed into a small version of Jail. "I still have my shape shifting!"

Jail chuckled and started laughing hard. "Oh... Oh my goodness! I can't believe it! It actually worked?"

"Doctor?" Quattro looked at his screen in confusion.

Jail chuckled heavily. "I remember now! I installed that mode into Due, in case something happened, since she would be alone more than the rest of her sisters. However, the only way to test that would be..."

"To kill me..." Due looked at him, her eyes suddenly watering up. "You didn't kill me, did you? I don't remember you killing me, please tell me that you didn't kill me! I don't want to know that you killed me!"

Jail chuckled softly. "No, I didn't kill you. I didn't want to risk it not working, so I just decided to abandon it."

"Hmph!" Quattro huffed and turned away. "I bet she's going to go live like the rest of the traitors now."

"Quattro!" Uno yelled at her and the glasses-wearing cyborg turned to her with a look of disdain.

"What? It's true, isn't it? She's not going to stay in prison and she's going to just live with them." She then looked at Due, who was looking at her with some fear and confusion and snorted. "Probably for the better anyway, I'd rather not know this sniveling, whimpering, pathetic pile of scrap as Due anyway."

"...You mean it?" Due asked in a small voice as Quattro narrowed her eyes at her.

"That's what I'm talking about! The Due I knew and loved was cold-hearted, ruthless and wouldn't take this kind of crap from anyone. As far as I'm concerned, you're not Due, just someone who took her name!"

"…Qua…ttro?" Due whimpered as Quattro glared at her.

"Don't you ever talk to me until you're the same Due I remember!" Quattro turned away with a huff.

Due's lips trembled slightly as she looked at Jail. "Doctor..?"

"Well, I can't prove that you're the same Due, but then again, I can't prove that you're not the same Due, so..." He shrugged and leaned back. "Go ahead and do what you want."

Even though Jail smiled at her, she felt her eyes burning. She turned to Uno. "Un-nee..?"

The eldest cyborg shook her head. "It's probably for the best that you turned into that form... Otherwise you'd be in here with us, I'm pretty sure that's not what you'd want."

"Un-nee?"

She smiled sadly at the little cyborg. "I'm sorry, Due, but seeing you like this... It is painful to look at."

"Don't look at me." Tre held her hands up as Due looked at her screen. "We weren't very close to begin with."

As the screens turned off, Cinque frowned and wished that she had listened to Schach and Carim. They had said that this would be a bad idea, but she had thought that it would do Due some good to know that all her sisters were alive. "Come on, Due..." She grabbed the young girl's hand and led her out of the building.

As they got to the street, Cinque winced, the weather had suddenly taken a turn for the worst. She had to pull her hood over her head and tighten it up. She turned to Due to do the same, but the girl was looking down, trembling. "Due?" There were tears falling down Due's face, which wasn't a good thing at all.

"They... They abandoned me!" Due suddenly let out a wail and fled, causing Cinque to fall down.

"Due!" Cinque got up and ran after her, but quickly lost her after only two street turns. "DUE!"

All Cinque saw were crowds of people, snow starting to fall quickly and the winds picking up. "DUE!" She screamed into the wind.


	5. Story Hijack

So, right after I posted part 4, Tempy, an author on AnimeSuki, wrote up his rendition of how things would go if one of his Original Characters was in the story.

I rather liked that rendition, so I asked if I could post it up on

I got permission, so, now all of you get to see as well.

* * *

Bloody hell, it was cold. The snow swirled around him with growing fury, stinging his cheeks and ears. He responded by pulling his scarf closer and adjusting his hat. The thick woolen long coat served to keep him warm enough, even with the winds pulling at the tails and sending snow sticking to his shoes.

A good thick stew would be nice, tonight. Possibly a col cannon soup with extra potatoes and leeks…

A soft sob nearby sounded far louder than any bus or car that rumbled by. He paused, wondering if what he heard was just a figment of his imagination or just the howl of the wind. Unfortunately, he would hear it again, much clearer this time. With careful steps, he followed the sound into an alleyway. Though the wind was calmer here, the chill was just as sharp. He would have missed it completely had it not been for a shock of blond hair sticking out against the accumulating snow.

"…" the man leveled a flat look at the crying child. Another orphan? A homeless child? No, her clothes were too neat and new to be one. Perhaps a runaway? Either way, it was none of his business. At the same time, the weather was getting worse and worse, and the child hardly seemed prepared to survive the coming storm.

"Ahh, dammit. I might as well open an orphanage," he muttered and slowly approached the girl.

"Alright, enough with the waterworks. You'll catch your death of cold if you stay out here, not to mention the icicles sticking out of your eyes. You got a place to go home to?" he spoke, stopping a few feet away.

The girl jerked in surprise, her head snapping up to look at the newcomer. Her eyes were red, and her sleeves were soaked with tears. Just as quickly, she buried her face back into her arms. "Leave me alone! I don't want to go anywhere!"

"In case you haven't noticed, the weather is getting pretty bad. You can't stay out here. Here, I'll show you a place you can stay for the night."

"No! I don't even know you! Go away or I'll bite your legs off!"

A sigh, "My name's Kevin. I'm a civilian contractor for the Bureau under the administration of Commander Hayate Yagami, simulated rank: Staff Sergeant. My place is nearby. At the very least, you can get out of this weather until the storm passes.

"I said go away! I don't want your help! No one ever helps…!"

Well, he tried. Time to go home—god dammit he couldn't just leave. Leaving her here would just sign her death warrant, especially with the snow already accumulating on his shoulders and fedora. Calling in police would just have her run away, too.

Really. Picking up strays was a bad idea, but he picked her up anyways.

"Stop! Let me go!" despite her struggles, she could not find escape. "Help! I'm being kidnapped by a sexual deviant! This hoodlum is going to steal my cuteness!"

"Oh stop it," he drawled, half-carrying half-dragging the girl out of the alley. Her cries did draw the attentions of some people, though one glance at the tag on the man's jacket was enough to make them think nothing more. Somehow, the service tag of Riot Force 6 was an extraordinarily defining piece of his coat. It was enough to make most people shut up when questioning him.

Seeing as her cries for help went unaided, the girl resorted to using her own strength. Opening wide, she bit down on his arm. Kevin made a grunt, his mouth grimacing at the discomfort. Those little teeth were sharp, goddamn. "Please stop that. That hurts."

Her response was the growl cutely and chew harder. The wool was annoyingly thick and hard to bite through, but she could feel the flesh underneath succumb to her deadly bite.

The two of them were like this until the scenery changed; that is, they arrived at Kevin's abode. Even as he put up his hat and scarf, Due was diligently trying to eat his arm. Fortunately, he managed to entice her off the wool with a cupcake, of which she consumed with terrifying voracity.

"This is really good! What is it?" she asked, completely forgetting (or ignoring) the red mark on Kevin's arm. There were crumbs _everywhere_.

"Chocolate-pumpkin cupcake with vanilla Swiss butter-cream," he answered idly, placing a glass of milk in front of the girl. "What's your name, anyways?"

She gulped down the drink with frightening speed, slamming the glass down with a satisfied 'puhaah~!' before answering the question.

"My name is Due!"

Due? As in the number two? Uno, Due, Tre, Quattro—wait a second...

"You wouldn't happen to related to Cinque, Sette, Nove, and the others, would you?"

He saw the girl stiffen then shake her head wildly in negative.

"No! I don't know any of them!"

Bingo. "It isn't nice to lie, you know."

"Will you kick me out if I say yes?" she looked rather terrified at the thought.

Kevin blinked, "No, I won't kick you out, but someone's bound to worry about you."

"Hmph, I can survive on my own! I've done it for a while now!" Due started to push herself out of the seat.

"Hey, now," Kevin held up a hand. "Sit. I'll give you another cupcake if you behave."

"You will?" she looked at him as if he were a god.

"Yes, I have some white-chocolate-raspberry ones with sweet cream frosting in the fridge. If you sit and behave, I'll let you have one after I make a call."

"Really? Score! This tastes so much better than that leftover cake in the dumpster. There were all sorts of ants covering it, and a funny green fuzzy bit on the bottom. That didn't taste too good, but the rest did!"

Oooooookay. Making that call now.

He stepped into the next room, bringing up a call menu via his watch. Being one without any magical ability, he had to rely on technology to help get him around this strange world. As such, his wristwatch was converted into a PDA and communications device.

The communication screen beeped only for a few seconds before Cinque's snow-swept face came on.

"Kevin? I'm sorry, but this isn't a good time. I'm really busy right now," she seemed particularly flustered, her eyes not exactly on the screen.

"You wouldn't happen to be looking for a lost child named Due?" Kevin asked in his ever calm tone.

That got her attention, "Wha—how did you know?"

"She's in my kitchen, eating a cupcake," he jerked a thumb behind him. "You wanna come over and have one too?"

Relief visibly washed over the girl's features, a tired but thankful smile gracing her face, "You're a lifesaver! How did you find her?"

"I suppose I'm a sucker for a crying child, even one I find in an alley," Kevin said dryly, shrugging. "I'll keep an eye on her. See you when you get here."

"Yes, and thank you again!"

The screen blipped away, and Kevin returned to the kitchen where Due was patiently but eagerly awaiting her next treat. When presented with the little dessert, the child-cyborg sniffed at it carefully and took a small nibble. Her childish face lit up like the sun, and she ate the thing as if it would disappear otherwise.

Crumbs **everywhere**.

"So…" Kevin started, still taken back slightly by the sheer fury of her eating, "Why were you out in the cold, crying, and making Cinque worried?"

Due, busy with licking her fingers clean of cream, froze at the question. Her expression and body visibly drooped as the memories. "We visited my sisters and the doctor today. I thought they would be happy to see me, but Quattro just yelled at me. The doctor said I wasn't me, and Un-nee… she said it was painful to look at me. Tre didn't even want to try to meet me!"

She seemed ready to start crying again, at least until Kevin interrupted.

"Well that's crap. Sounds like they don't even deserve to see you again."

"But… they said I'm not really Due! I mean, the doctor said he couldn't prove that I'm not me, or that I really am me!" she sniffed. "Th-they just… they just abandoned me!"

In a way, the doctor did have a point, but tact was something they all seemed to lack, "No, I suppose it would be difficult to see you as your former self. At the same time, you could also say that you are not the original."

"But Reincarnation Mode brought me back! I know I'm Due! So why won't they accept me?"

Ah.

"You call it Reincarnation Mode, right? Do you know what that means?"

"Huh?" Due looked so lost…

"To simply come back to life from death is called resurrection. Reincarnation is to be reborn into a new body, a new identity. While you may seem similar to Due, that person died during the battle. You," he pointed at her. "You represent a second chance, a concept very few get."

"But my other sisters don't accept me! They think I'm some crazy person stuck in the body of a child! And… and… the others just abandoned me! This is a terrible second chance!"

"But you're wrong, there. I called your sister, and she seemed very worried about you. And the others, those not in prison, they were happy to see you, right? Everyone is trying to help you, and undoubtedly they are overjoyed that you are here. Wouldn't you be thrilled if Cinque came back? That's what she feels about you."

The child Due was silent in her thoughts, though Kevin moved about in the kitchen.

"I'm not saying you should become who you used to be, nor am I saying you should be someone completely different. You already know who you are, so don't cry. You are not alone, and you do have a purpose: you carry the first Due's will and your own, now."

A large pot was placed on the stove, as well as a kettle. After lighting the flames, he turned around and looked at the girl.

"This is your reincarnation, your new lease on life. Savor it."

There was a knock on the door. Kevin got a few more cupcakes ready.

* * *

Heh, Tempy, I salute you, that was very good.


	6. Chapter 5

Well, here's my continuation of "Due".

One part remains after this.

I do hope that you'll all like this.

Also, look up the song "Angels Among Us". That song was playing in my head as I wrote this part.

* * *

"Damn it!" Nove cursed as the winds picked up and forced her to put some goggles over her eyes to keep the snow and wind out of her face. "DUE!"

Beside her, Deed was using her blades as a glow stick so they could see better. The younger cyborg was incredibly worried as she and Nove ran through the streets. "I can't believe Due would run off like that." Deed shivered as a gust of wind blew snow off the ground and pelted the both of them with enough snow that they were white-washed in only a second. "I'm glad Cinque called us." Deed commented as the two wiped off the snow.

Nove nodded, but she was still so worried. "And tonight of all nights!"

* * *

"Due!" Otto called out as she and Wendi checked alley after alley. "Due!"

"Come on! Due!" Wendi called out for her sister. "We'll get some hot chocolate!" Her voice was wavering slightly. "Where is she?"

Otto shook her head, the sun had already set and there were fewer people out, but it didn't make it any easier.

* * *

"This is all my fault." Cinque said as she and Zafira ran down the streets. "If only I hadn't taken her to see them!"

"Now isn't the time to blame yourself." He commented to her. "Save the blame for after we find her." He chanced a glance at her snow-covered face, and mentally sighed at the worried look on her face. "You called everyone you could to help, that's all you could do. We'll find her."

She nodded at the blue and white wolf, thankful for his help in this. "Is that?" She ran forward and pulled on something sticking out of the snow. "Due's scarf..."

"We'll find her." Zafira told her as they doubled their efforts.

A screen popped up in front of them, revealing Sein's face. "Any luck?"

"No." Cinque shook her head. "I found Due's scarf."

Sein nodded. "I'll keep looking on the north end." Both Zafira and Cinque could see the snow sticking to Sein's face and the way her teeth were chattering.

"Sein, are you sure?"

She nodded at them. "Don't worry, Dieci's here with me and Subaru and Ginga are searching as well. We'll find Due."

"I hope so..." Cinque looked at the scarf and squeezed it tightly. "Due... Where are you?"

* * *

She ran, she stumbled, she cried when her scarf slipped off her neck and flew away in the wind. "Why?" She cried out to no one in particular. "Why? I'm Due! I know I'm Due!" Getting up on her feet, she continued to run forward and slipped as she ran across some ice. "AAAAH!" She found herself sliding uncontrollably towards the street.

Falling to her knees, she sobbed and pushed herself to her feet, stumbling, since the snow was so deep. She was about to take a step forward when sudden lights flooded where she was at. Turning her head, her eyes widened as she saw a car swerving for her. "NOOOO!" She closed her eyes, preparing for the end.

Suddenly she felt someone grab her and pull her back, just in time as the car zoomed by with a drawn out honk.

"Huh?" Due blinked as she found herself sitting on the ground. "Who?" She looked around and turned, blinking as she saw an older man, who smiled sadly at her, before turning away and walking without saying a word. "Mister?" When she got no answer as he walked away, she stomped the ground and took off running after him. He seemed familiar, and she wasn't sure why.

* * *

It had been over two hours and there had been no sight or smell of Due in that time.

"Cinque..." Zafira looked at her sadly. "I'm sorry."

"We can't... We can't give up on her..." Cinque shivered heavily and looked as if she was about to collapse on him.

"I'm not saying we should..." He sighed and slipped under her legs, propping her up on his back as he continued to walk. "It's late, and the cold's getting to you." It had gotten to him as well, but he had dealt with winters this cold in the past, so it was pretty easy to ignore it.

"I won't... I won't give up on her." Cinque shuddered even as she gripped the scarf tightly.

"Cinque! Zafira!" Nove called out, shivering slightly. "No luck?"

Cinque shook her head. "No..."

"Dammit!" Deed swore and felt like punching something.

"This is not the way to spend tonight!" Nove growled.

Zafira suddenly turned his head and took off, Cinque nearly fell off of his back in his hurry. Looking at each other, Nove and Deed followed after him closely.

"Mister! Mister!" They both heard a soft voice calling out.

"DUE!"

The little girl stiffened and turned around, her lips were slightly blue from the cold and her cheeks were bright red. "What?"

Cinque jumped off Zafira and basically tackled Due as she hugged her tightly. "Don't... Don't you ever do that again!" Due trembled as Cinque hugged her tightly, crying softly.

"Oi!" Nove looked at them as Deed contacted the rest of their sisters. "Of all the nights you chose to run away on, you had to choose this night!"

"Huh?" Due looked at her in confusion. "Why tonight?"

Cinque pulled away from Due and held up Due's scarf. "Come on," she wrapped it around Due's neck, "we'll show you."

Due was blinking in confusion the whole time.


	7. Final Chapter

Final part of Due.

With an extra special ending for those of you who followed on AS and TFF.

So, here it is! The final part!

And you get to see who saved Due from becoming a blood smear!

* * *

"This is..." Due looked at the house in front of her. She was riding on Zafira's back, since the Guardian Beast wouldn't let her walk around on her own after she fell down the fifth time.

Cinque smiled. "Where my sisters and I live."

"But why..." She turned to Otto as the other girl put a hand on her shoulder.

"Every year we come to this house to have fun together." She winked at Due, who blinked at her in confusion. "Cinque was going to bring you here right after your meeting."

"...Oh..." Due looked down before she felt a shaking of her shoulder. "Otto?"

"Now, now... We're just happy you're alive."

"I wouldn't be if that man hadn't saved me."

"What man?" Otto blinked in confusion as Due held her hands up in the air.

"Didn't you see him? He was like... Huge! And... Strangely, familiar, but he was big, and he smiled at me like he was just happy to see me, but he never spoke to me." She pouted then. "That's not nice, even the people on the streets who yelled at me at least called me a brat. I'm not a brat am I?"

"If we don't get out of this cold, we'll all be frozen brats." Wendi called out. She was thankful that the storm had started to let up, but it was still pretty bad outside.

It didn't take them long to get inside the house. It took them much longer to get the snow off of their bodies and out of their winter clothes.

"Welcome back." Genya smiled as he saw his daughters, the church girls and... "So you must be Due." He chuckled softly. "You don't know how worried we all were when you disappeared like that. I've never seen Cinque so upset in all my life."

"Dad!" The one-eyed cyborg blushed as Genya chuckled softly.

Due was led to the table and blinked at all the chairs. "What..." She looked up as three people came out of the kitchen area.

"Subaru, Ginga, Teana." Wendi smiled at them as they sat food after food on the table.

Due's eyes sparkled as she saw the feast being laid out in front of her. "...Foood..."

Teana giggled softly and nodded to her. "That's right. Subaru asked me to come over and help, and then you disappear like that..." She shook her head. "This wouldn't be a very happy Christmas without the guest of honor."

"Huh?" Looking around, she saw nothing but smiling faces. "...Me? Honor? But... Why?"

Cinque knelt down to look at her face-to-face. "It's your first Christmas with your family, Due. Regardless of what Jail, Uno, Quattro and Tre said to you, you are Due, you are our sister... And we wanted to welcome you, properly, into our family."

Due trembled softly, before sniffling and glomping Cinque tightly. "WAAAAAHHH!"

"Due?" Cinque was surprised as Due trembled and sniffled.

"I... I feel... Happy!" The little girl sobbed. "Why am I crying?"

Cinque giggled softly. "It's okay to cry when you're happy, Due. You'll learn that soon enough."

"Oi!" Nove smirked at them after a few more moments. "Stop with the blubbering, Due, it's Christmas, let's just enjoy the night."

Zafira looked at Genya, who shook his head. "I guess going home in this weather would be a problem, huh?"

"Yeah." Genya nodded at him. "I'll give Hayate a call to let her know where you're at."

"Thank you, but I'll do it." The blue wolf nodded and slipped away to make that call.

"Ne, Tea..."

"Yeah, Subaru?" Teana blinked as Subaru hugged her.

"Thanks for coming."

Teana smiled as Subaru let go. "I don't mind, your family's nice."

"Hey! Enough of this!" Wendi called out to everyone. "Let's eat!"

"Yeah!" Everyone cheered as they started to pull up to the table.

Outside, looking through the window, though no one could see him, was the man who saved Due. "I'm glad you found your place in life, Due..." He closed his eyes as he started to float up and away. "I never was angry at you for what you did to me. I was sad... Because you were just one more lost soul who didn't know what she wanted. Take care, Due... And try not to kill anymore priests this time around." The man chuckled as he faded away into the sky.

Special Bonus Ending!

"Wake up, Due..."

"Nnngh... No wanna wake up. The squirrels haven't eaten the dog yet." The little blond girl rolled over and shivered slightly. "Not cold enough to wake up, my feet are still on."

"Times like this, I wonder just what she went through."

"Can't be helped, Sein..." Another voice spoke up as Due felt her body get shook slightly. "Come on, Due... The squirrels will get the dog next time."

"Nuh uh!" The little girl mumbled in her sleep. "The dog's bigger than them and he's sitting on all their food."

Sein giggled softly. "I guess you don't want breakfast then?"

The girl shot up in an instant, her eyes wide. "Breakfast? Where?"

Cinque chuckled and ruffled Due's hair. It was a complete mess. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up a bit, then we'll go get some food..." She then winked at Due, who looked at her in confusion. "Plus something extra."

"It's not going to be a growling dog, is it? Growling dogs like to bite, and I like Zaffy, he doesn't bite, he doesn't growl, he lets me ride on his back and he knows how to kick up a lot of snow to bury Nove and Wendi!"

Sein giggled at that as the two led her out of the room. "No, not a growling dog, you'll see."

"Kay!" The girl threw her hands up into the air and laughed happily as Sein started tickling her belly. "Hee hee, that tickles!"

"Good." Sein smiled at her.

* * *

"Ah." Genya smiled as he, his daughters, Zafira and the church cyborgs saw Sein, Cinque and Due walk into the living room. "Good morning, Due."

"What's this?" She asked as she looked at the various boxes in pretty wrappings all over the floor.

Smiling at the little girl, Otto put a red cap with a white ball on the end on her head. "Well, it's your first Christmas morning, Due... So..."

"You get to find out the best part of Christmas!" Wendi grinned as she grabbed a box and walked over, handing it to Due. "Opening presents!"

"Huh?" Due blinked at the box in front of her. "This isn't going to hold a bunch of spiders is it? The last box I opened had a bunch of spiders over this really hard bread that was mostly eaten though. And the webbing, icky!"

Wendi shook her head. "No, no spiders, this is much nicer."

"It's a pretty box, can I keep the box?"

Cinque chuckled softly. "Go on, take the wrapping off, there's something in the box for you."

Due's eyes lit up as she gasped after hearing that and tore into the box.

Inside the box was a yellow stuffed kitten looking back at her.

"Huh?"

Ginga smiled at the little girl. "Well, we kept hearing how you much you wanted a kitten to sleep with at the church..."

"So, we thought you'd like a little stuffed kitten that won't run away on you." Sein finished for Ginga.

Due was quiet as she took the kitten out of the box and held it up, looking at it. The kitten looked back at her with a plain look on its face.

Everyone was silent, before Due hugged it to her wordlessly, her eyes glistened in tears even as her face lit up in happiness. "Thank you."

Wendi giggled. "We're not done yet, kiddo!" She stepped aside and revealed several more boxes. "We all got presents, but we thought it would be more fun for you to open a few more of yours."

Due smiled brightly, even as tears leaked out of her eyes. "Thank you... All of you..." She buried her face into her plush kitten. "I'm glad that you didn't abandon me."

Cinque hugged Due tightly from behind. "We're family, Due. Part of being family is accepting everyone for who they are. That includes you and your silliness."

Genya coughed and caught everyone's attention. "Well, I wanted to wait until the end, but I think it might be a good time now..." He smiled at Due, who looked up, tears leaking out of her eyes. "Due... How would you like to be my daughter? Officially?"

She gasped as she looked around, her sisters were smiling at her and nodding. "You... You mean it?"

"Due Nakajima..." Subaru muttered out loud, before smiling. "Actually, that doesn't sound too bad, huh?"

Due whimpered and turned around, hugging Cinque tightly, even as she cried.

"Due?" Cinque asked her softly while rubbing the little girl's back.

"I'm... So happy!" She bawled out. "I wish I had known you girls better before I died before."

Cinque smiled softly. "Well, it's good that you're alive now, so you get to know all of us better." After letting Due cry a bit more, Cinque pulled away from her and smiled brightly. "So... Is that a yes?"

"Uh huh!" She then turned and ran to Genya, hugging him tightly. "Papa!"

Genya hugged her back, smiling.

"We're going to need to get her a new room." Dieci spoke up quietly before Wendi threw an arm around her shoulder.

"Ah, who cares about that right now?" The redhead grinned. "It's Christmas, we have a new family member, our sister's back from the dead, and we have a lot of presents to open!"

Due pulled back from Genya, her kitten still in her arms. "Yeah!"

Genya chuckled as his daughters opened their gifts. As he looked at them, he wondered just what challenges faced them in the future before shrugging it off. They were a family, he was certain that they'd face it together.

End

* * *

Well, how was it?

I hope I did well.

See you in my next project.


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